WIX Archives

B-17 & B-24 Update

Posted by Ryan Keough on Mon Apr 07, 2003 11:26:12 PM

Hi folks, here's an update on the status of the B-17 and B-24 after the hail damage.

Thanks goes out to CAF Gulf Coast Wing and the crew of "Texas Raiders" for loaning the recently recovered elevators for their B-17 which is now in maintenance while we get ours recovered. The crew from CF West in Houston led by Tommy Garcia worked with the CAF crew and got the elevators off yesterday and they were promptly driven all night to arrive in Dallas to be reinstalled today on "Nine O Nine".

A pair of recovered ailerons for the B-17 were driven by Bill Strawn from American Aero Services from Florida to Texas and they should be rolling into town about now.

Thanks also goes out to Ralph Royce and Lone Star Flight Museum of Galveston for loaning the ailerons to their PB4Y Privateer to us for our B-24 while ours get recovered... they are the same wing and will fit perfectly.

That leaves only the elevator to the B-24 that will need a recovering on site. The folks at Poly-Fiber (former Stits) in California were generous enough to donate the fabric and covering process materials for all of the control surfaces to be recovered on both planes. It should be mentioned that they also donated the materials for the recovering job on the recent repaint of our B-25 "Tondelayo". Thanks goes out to Rick Harris for working on the details of this wonderful boost to the project!

With all luck, the B-17 should be flying tomorrow with some borrowed "feathers" and the B-24 should be about a week behind... much better than we originally thought!

This only proves how helpful and supportive the warbird community is. Thank you to everyone for your supportive words and donations during this time, and thank you for keeping the "Keep 'em Flying" spirit alive!

The Collings Foundation

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